


Therapy Poodle to the Rescue

by longlosttimelady



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Panic Attacks, Therapy Dog, Vicchan Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-08 23:43:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19878040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longlosttimelady/pseuds/longlosttimelady
Summary: Yuuri has never been more glad that he made Vicchan his official therapy dog and got permission to bring him to competitions. Without him, Yuuri might never have had the chance to meet Victor. Too bad it wasn't under better circumstances.





	Therapy Poodle to the Rescue

He couldn’t breathe. He tried taking a deep breath, but his lungs refused to cooperate. He tried again, but still couldn’t manage it. That’s when he really began to panic. There were too many people, and they were starting to notice him.

Quietly he slipped away from the main warmup area, vaguely registering his coach shouting something behind him, he just needed a place to calm down, preferably one with fewer people, or none at all.

He wandered until he came upon an empty hallway, far enough from everyone else that he couldn’t even hear the murmur of voices, not that he could hear much at all, his hearing seemed to have been muffled at some point.

He sank down onto the floor and drew his knees up to his chest, still struggling to breathe and full on panicking now, and not just because of all the pressure and expectations, but because he couldn’t fucking breathe! And how was he supposed to skate if he couldn’t breathe? He would let down everyone when he passed out on the ice. He would lose his chance at medaling at all, let alone getting gold. Everyone would be so disappointed in him. He would lose all his fans and sponsors and-

Someone was coming, maybe if he stayed still and quiet they would pass right by and not even notice the four-time world champion panicking on a floor in a back hallway.

The someone came hurtling around the corner and ran down his hallway, their face buried in something that they were carrying in their arms.

_Yip_

A small fluffy head popped up and yipped again, attention seemingly shifting between the stranger and Victor.

“Vicchan?” The stranger’s voice sounded strained, as if he too was having trouble breathing. As he raised his head to look at the tiny poodle in his arms Victor recognized Yuuri Katsuki, the gorgeous skater from Japan. Luckily he didn’t seem to have noticed Victor yet. The poodle yipped again and started wriggling and that’s when Yuuri finally noticed Victor, four time world champion and gold medalist favorite, curled up on the floor and probably looking like a wreck.

Yuuri’s eyes went wide in shock and they stared at each other in horror for a moment before Yuuri spoke up.

“Victor? What are you doing here?”

The poodle took advantage of their momentary distraction and managed to free himself from Yuuri’s arm and run up to Victor. They both looked down as the poodle tried to climb on top of Victor, and who was he to deny such a cute puppy? He lowered his legs enough for the dog to climb onto his lap and watched as it settled in.

Victor looked back up to Yuuri to see if he was okay with this to see Yuuri looking back at him with a concerned look.

“Are you okay?”

Victor tried to force his usual smile on his face as he replied, “Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” He grimaced internally when it came out more pained than cheery.

Yuuri sat down next to him.

“Vicchan is trying to comfort you. He wouldn’t have left me during a panic attack if there wasn’t someone else who needed him more.”

Victor looked down at the poodle, Vicchan, in his lap and then back up at Yuuri. His confusion must have shown because Yuuri answered his question unprompted.

“Vicchan is my therapy dog. I have really bad anxiety so I got a special pass for him to come with me to competitions.” Yuuri looked down at his hands twisting in his lap before looking back at Victor nervously. “D-do you want to talk about it?”

Victor suddenly remembered why he was there, the pressure the expectations the breathing, oh, great, he couldn’t breathe again. 

Yuuri started panicking again seeing Victor panicking, great, now he was ruining someone else’s chances of medaling, and Victor had been hoping Yuuri would join him on the podium tomorrow, but now it looked like neither of them would make it and it was all because he couldn’t handle the pressure anymore. Yuuri was saying something, probably scolding him, Yakov would be yelling at him to pull himself together, but Victor couldn’t hear him, and he still couldn’t breathe.

Suddenly his hand was yanked from its death grip on his knees and placed on a warm and well toned surface that was rising and falling gently and rhythmically. “Breathe with me, Victor.” That was Yuuri’s voice, he sounded calmer, still worried, but calmer, and in control, so Victor tried to breathe.

It took a while, but eventually he managed to get his breathing to match Yuuri’s and slowly he calmed down. When he did, he noticed that Vicchan had repositioned himself to try and lay on top of as much of Victor as his tiny body would allow. It was very cute, and very comforting.

“Can I pet him?” Victor managed to ask and was answered by Yuuri moving his hand from his chest to the poodle’s curls. 

Neither of them spoke for a while as they both stroked the poodle in Victor’s lap. It was nice. Eventually Victor spoke up, deciding that he could probably trust Yuuri after everything the other skater had done to help him.

“I think the pressure finally got to me.” Yuuri’s hand paused before continuing it’s petting, but Yuuri remained silent, listening.

“Everyone wants something from me, everyone expects something, to win, to smile, to surprise, to woo sponsors and fans. I- I’m not sure I can do it anymore.”

“I think I understand.” Yuuri eventually replied quietly. “I’m so afraid of letting everyone down, everyone who supports me and believes in me, even when I don’t deserve it. This is my first time at the GPF and everyone expects me to do so well, but I know I’m just going to let them down, if not now then eventually. It must be so much worse having the whole world to not let down. That’s part of why having Vicchan with me is so helpful. He doesn’t care how I skate, or if I get a medal or not, all he cares about is that I’m happy.”

Victor looked down at the happy looking poodle curled up in his lap and thought of Makkachin. She was the same, she didn’t care about skating or anyone’s expectations. She didn’t even seem to resent him for leaving her alone so often, always happily greeting him whenever he walked through the door.

“How about we forget about everyone else then. At least for today. We go out there and skate for our dogs, the only ones who don’t care about the outcome.” Victor smiled at Yuuri, a real one this time.

Yuuri smiled back. “That sounds good.”

***

Victor stood on top of the podium, wearing his fifth consecutive GPF gold medal and the first real smile the public had seen in years. 

To his right stood Yuuri, wearing a silver medal and a look that was somewhere between ecstatic and shell shocked.

  
Chris had taken his bronze medal in stride, commenting that the view was twice as good as usual as they had lined up to skate out onto the ice. Yuuri had blushed a bright red once he realized just what view Chris was referring to.

As they left the ice after the medal ceremony Vicchan was there to greet them. Chris gave the tiny poodle a couple pats before going off to join his boyfriend, but Yuuri and Victor stayed to shower the hero of the competition with pets.

“I’m going to miss this little fluffball. I’d better see you both at Worlds.”

“I’ll do my best to be there.” Yuuri replied, blushing, just as cute as his poodle. “Maybe you can bring Makkachin.”

Victor lit up at the idea. “Yes! We can have a puppy play date!”

Yuuri laughed, Victor decided he liked the sound.

“Maybe after- after Worlds you could both come back to Hasetsu with me? If you still need a break from everything. My family runs an onsen and you would both be welcome there.”

Victor beamed. “That sounds perfect!”

**Author's Note:**

> Makkachin and Vicchan are of course very proud of both of them for existing. And become best friends when they meet at Worlds. They're inseperable. I guess their dads will just have to get married then. I don't think they'll object.


End file.
